The present invention relates to devices for monitoring and controlling the operation of a human or animal heart and more particularly to a novel monitor and control system which provides for activation of mechanical or electrical assistance devices directly from the display screen thereby eliminating a human interface which is required in present day systems.
Significant technological advancements have been made in the treatment of heart patients in recent years. It is now possible, through the use of devices such as pacemakers, mechanical ventricular assistance devices, bypass pumps and intra-aortic balloon pumps to improve prognosis in severely ill cardiac patients. Mechanical ventricular assistance is provided, for example, by a device commonly known as the Anstadt cup which fits about the ventricles of the heart and which provides full circulatory support for resuscitation or preservation of the organs, mechanical systole and mechanical diastole being provided by alternating pulsed positive and negative pressures applied to the cup. Intra-aortic balloons are typically inserted into the descending aorta and are normally inflated during diastole and deflated during systole to decrease left ventricular pressure and hence the resultant activity of the heart. Immediately after left ventricular rejection the balloon is again inflated to raise diastolic pressures and increase coronary perfusion thereby mechanically assisting and augmenting the pumping action of the heart to significantly enhance recovery of the patient.
Pacemakers are typically utilized to restore a regular heartbeat while pulsatile bypass pumps, which are essentially a model of the left-side of the heart and are provided with an atrium and ventricle, are utilized to provide diastolic or systolic augmentation or total body perfusion during heart surgery.
All of the above mechanical or electrical assist devices require that trained personnel continuously observe displays of ECG traces and arterial pressure readings and, based upon these human observations, the trained personnel must then adjust control knobs and the like to provide for appropriate control of the mechanical assistive devices so as to appropriately synchronize their operation with the patient's heart. This "human" interface is extremely demanding, even upon trained personnel, making it extremely difficult to exert proper control over the mechanical or electrical assist devices and making it effectively impossible to cause such mechanical or electrical assistive devices to substantially instantaneously respond to the continuously changing displayed information.